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Former Guatemalan Special Forces Soldier Pleads Guilty to Making False Statements on Immigration Forms Regarding 1982 Massacre of Guatemalan Villagers

WASHINGTON – Gilberto Jordan, 54, a former Guatemalan special forces soldier, pleaded guilty today in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to a federal charge of unlawfully procuring his U.S. citizenship, admitting that he lied on his naturalization application about his participation in a 1982 massacre at a Guatemalan village known as Dos Erres. The guilty plea was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer for the Southern District of Florida and Director John Morton of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Jordan, of Delray Beach, Fla., entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch. Jordan was remanded into custody by Judge Zloch following the plea hearing. Jordan faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and judicial revocation of his naturalized citizenship. He will be sentenced on Sept. 17, 2010.

According to the indictment and court documents, in approximately November 1982, a Guatemalan guerrilla group ambushed a military convoy near Dos Erres, Guatemala, killing soldiers and taking a number of rifles. In response, a patrol of approximately 20 Guatemalan special forces soldiers, known as "Kaibiles," including Jordan, were deployed in December 1982 to the village of Dos Erres to search for the stolen rifles and find suspected guerrillas. According to court documents, on or about Dec. 7, 1982, Jordan and the special patrol entered Dos Erres with the support of approximately 40 additional Kaibiles, who created a security perimeter around the village so that no one could escape. The members of the special patrol searched all of the houses for the missing weapons, forced the villagers from their homes, and separated the women and children from the men.

Court documents further state that members of the special patrol then proceeded to systematically kill the men, women and children at Dos Erres by, among other methods, hitting them in the head with a sledgehammer and then pushing them into the village well. According to court documents, members of the special patrol also forcibly raped many of the women and girls at Dos Erres before killing them. Approximately 162 skeletal remains were later exhumed from the village well.

As part of his plea, Jordan admitted that he had been a Kaibil in the Guatemalan military who participated in the massacre at Dos Erres. Jordan also admitted that the first person he killed at Dos Erres was a baby, whom Jordan murdered by throwing in the well.

According to court documents, when Jordan applied to become a U.S. citizen in September 1996, he falsely denied that he had ever served in the military or committed any crimes for which he had not been arrested. In July 1999, when Jordan was interviewed by a naturalization examiner in connection with his naturalization application, he falsely swore under oath that the answers he had earlier provided on his application were true and correct. Jordan was sworn in as a U.S. citizen on Aug. 25, 1999.

The case was prosecuted byTrial Attorneys Hillary Davidson and Brian Skaret of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the Criminal Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Marie Villafaña of the Southern District of Florida. The case was investigated by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations in West Palm Beach and ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit and ICE’s Office of International Affairs. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance in this matter.